She said: “Everyone naturally assumed this moment was captured when I was pregnant. But it was filmed only a few weeks after Amiir’s death.

“I couldn’t believe he wanted to put on scrubs in that same hospital again. But it was his way of coping.

"I went along with it because I loved him.”

He thought Amiir's death was price he had to pay for his behaviour as a young man

Mayte GarciaPrince's ex-wife

The couple were dealt a further tragic blow when a second pregnancy a year later ended in miscarriage.

Mayte believes Prince never fully recovered from the heartache of losing Amiir and may even still be alive today had their boy lived.

She said: “If Amiir had survived I know that everything would have been different. Prince came from a broken home and had a troubled relationship with his own dad. Being a father would have changed him.”

Mayte felt more threatened by her husband’s new religion than by rumours of a fling with Manuela Testolini, who worked for his charity.

She first suspected that something was going on when she saw him shake Manuela’s hand — a rare gesture for someone so afraid of catching germs.

Then, at a press conference in 1998, Prince announced out of the blue that he planned to annul their marriage.

Mayte recalled: “I sat with a frozen smile on my face. He could be a tyrant at times.”

They did not legally divorce until May 2000. Prince wed Manuela the following year, but that second marriage ended in divorce in 2006.

After their split Mayte was horrified to learn that Prince had ordered an assistant to burn everything that reminded him of their marriage or baby, including Amiir’s ashes.

Ironically it was Manuela, 40, who rang Mayte to break the news of Prince’s death last year.

Mayte said: “The news came as a huge shock. I had been plucking up the courage to visit him and introduce him to my five-year-old daughter, Gia. I had even looked at flights. I wish I had taken one now.”

She had seen glimpses of Prince’s prescription drug abuse, but believes he kept much of it hidden.

Mayte, who adopted Gia as a baby, now devotes herself to animal rescue and teaching belly-dancing.

She has dated since her divorce from Prince, including a two-year relationship with Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, but says she has never fallen for anyone in the same way.

“No one measures up to him. It is hard, I guess, to find another Prince.”

The Most Beautiful: My Life With Prince by Mayte Garcia (Trapeze, £18.88) is out now.